Facebook announces Video on Instagram to take on Vine

With recent moves to add hashtag support, verified Pages, comments with inline photo embeds and more, it appears that Facebook is ready to take on competing social networks. It should come as no surprise to us, then, that it's putting its acquisition of Instagram to good use by introducing a service -- aptly called Video on Instagram --that rivals Vine, a similar service now owned by Twitter.

Instagram's version will be accessed by an icon on the bottom right corner of the app, and you'll be able to record up to 15 seconds of video, using your choice of 13 new filters exclusively for the service. Contrary to its major competitor, this particular service (which will be available on iOS and Android versions from day one, and can be viewed on the web as well) won't loop the video on an endless basis -- rather, you'll see it pop up in your feed and the video will run just once. In addition to filters, Instagram has introduced a stabilization feature called Cinema. Instagram's blog post and video showing the new service can be found after the break, and the iOS version is already live on the App Store. Sadly, Instagram had no news about when we can expect to see the app on Windows Phone, but the team has been "talking with [Microsoft] and learning." And folks, please promise you won't go crazy on the cat videos.

Update: Both iOS and Android apps are now available in their respective stores.

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Facebook Instagram Video screenshots

Over the past two and a half years, Instagram has become a community where you can capture and share the world's moments simply and beautifully. Some moments, however, need more than a static image to come to life. Until now these stories have been missing from Instagram.

Today, we're thrilled to introduce Video on Instagram and bring you another way to share your stories. When you go to take a photo on Instagram, you'll now see a movie camera icon. Tap it to enter video mode, where you can take up to fifteen seconds of video through the Instagram camera.

You'll also find that we've added thirteen filters built specifically for video so you can keep sharing beautiful content on Instagram. When you post a video, you'll also be able to select your favorite scene from what you've recorded as your cover image so your videos are beautiful even when they're not playing.

We're excited to see what the community will bring to video, whether it's your local cafe showing you [just how they made your latte art] this morning or an [Instagrammer on the other side of the world] taking you on a tour of their city, a [mother sharing her joys in parenting] as her children laugh and play or your favorite athlete taking you [behind the scenes].

So what does this mean for your content? Nothing's different from photos. We're still committed to making sure you have control over all of your content. Only the people who you let see your photos will be able to see your videos. And as with photos, you own your videos. You can learn more about Video on Instagram-including our new Cinema feature-by visiting the Instagram Help Center.